Now that a bit of history has been covered, it is time to see how Super Mario 3D Land stands as a game on its own. There may be spoilers in my following ramblings, so be warned. Yet at the same time, is anyone really expecting Mario to do anything other than save Princess Toadstool? Yeah, I didn't think so.
Just as Super Mario Galaxy 2 streamlined level design, so too does Super Mario 3D Land. The levels in 3D Land are streamlined and lineal affairs, with Mario running towards and away from the screen in the best 3D seen on the system yet. Each stage also has three golden coins for you to collect, and if you are on the ball you can collect all three of them in your first run. 3D Land’s stages follow the design we saw in Super Mario Galaxy 2, and this abstract level design gives the player a great variety of levels, challenges, and things to see. But this variety only persists through the first 8 worlds of the game (essentially play-through 1), and soon you find yourself playing through the same stages over and over again as you adventure through the special worlds (play-through 2). While the levels do get different groups of enemies, power-ups, and even time limits during this second jaunt, replaying them over and over again does become a drag after a while.
For me, music can make or break a game for me and it was a pleasant surprise that Super Mario 3D Land has some of the best Mario music yet. The plethora of Mario 3 remixes, and how the music changes based on whether you’re above ground (clear and boisterous), underground (muffled and reserved, or a great remix of the classic underground music), or in the water (think of the typical tropical vibe video games have used throughout the years) is a great way to provide the player with a surprisingly immersive soundscape. After a year of amazing music, 3D Land was a nice way to cap everything off. This is a soundtrack I would like to get my hands on.
Players will have to get used to how Mario controls in 3D Land. While the game is presented in the same vein as Mario 64 and Galaxy 1 and 2, Mario doesn’t move nearly as fast as you would expect him too. The inclusion of a run button (Y) obviously lets Mario run around the levels faster, and as you would expect, using the momentum from running is key to helping Mario make many of his death-defying jumps. The return of Tanooki suit is something fans have been wanting ever since Mario 3 (leaf and all), and it plays just as you would hope and expect: Mario can extend his jump distance by using the suit to glide for short distances, and the iconic racoon tail can smash blocks to reveal hidden areas and dispose of those incessant goombas who block your path to the Princess.
Overall, Super Mario 3D Land is a joy to play. While the repetition of levels does drag the experience down somewhat during play-through 2, the overall experience is solid. The inclusion of a second, harder game after the initial credits is great and is something I hope more and more developers do (see Irrational’s 1999 mode for Bioshock: Infinte), and helps to give the game longer legs. Super Mario 3D Land is easily worth the price of admission, and is a great show piece of what the 3DS can do in the hands of competent developers. If nothing else, this has me excited to see what else Nintendo does with their 3DS and to see where this evolution of Mario will take the world’s favourite plumber.
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